Usual Disclaimer: Unfortunately this world and its wonderful inhabitants do not belong to me, they belong to J. K. Rowling, I'm just borrowing them. I am making no money from this it is purely for the enjoyment of those few who choose to read it. Thanks J. K. for lending me your ready made world of magic.

A/N: A HUGE Thank You to all who reviewed the last chapter and an extra special thanks to those who continue to read this story after the horrendous wait for an update. I can do no better than apologise profusely and hope I am forgiven.

Also in order to get this posted quickly, it has not been subjected to the rigorous beta-ing that my other chapters have so once again I beg forgiveness for any errors.

Also you may all be glad to know that the story is nearing its end and I hope to have the final chapters uploaded by August/September at the latest so Thank you for putting up with my terrible time-keeping and I hope you all continue to enjoy the story.

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"Merlin Ginny. And what exactly was written in your Diary?" Hermione looked swiftly at Harry who finally clicked.

"Hermione, don't be... Oh bloody hell."

Ginny bit her lip sheepishly "I'm so sorry Harry! We'll find it, we'll get it back..." She gushed quickly.

"But what damage will it have done by then?" Harry sighed and flopped into a chair. He closed his eyes and wondered what he was going to tell Draco. The Snake on his chest squirmed, telling him that Draco was already aware that something was wrong. He stroked his chest trying to calm the marking and somehow Draco at the same time.

Ginny looked close to tears and Hermione seemed deep in thought, her brow furrowed in its habitual way.

Ron viewed the situation with despair. 'How could they think it would turn out any different? If it wasn't happening now it would happen later!' He felt like beating his head off of a brick wall. He sat down and sighed. "Let's just deal with it shall we?"

Three surprised heads turned to face him. "Same as we deal with everything else we've been thrown into. You must have known you would have to face it at some point." He looked at his best friend seriously.

"That may be the smartest thing you've ever said Ronald Weasley." Hermione looked at him in disbelief ignoring his grimace at the use of his full name. Harry smiled at him and felt proud of his best friend and resisted the urge to hug him.

"You're right. So first step would be...?" Everyone looked to Hermione at that point.

"What am I, a strategist?" Hermione rolled her eyes. "Okay, first you go tell Dumbledore that word of your relationship may have leaked out but you don't know who to. Ginny, how long has your diary been missing?"

"Erm... about a week maybe..."

"Then He knows." Harry stated.

"Don't think that way! He might not... yet." Hermione suggested without much hope in her voice.

"Well, there haven't been any rumours started that we know of so we have to presume that either someone is biding their time or that whoever found or stole the diary has taken it straight out of Hogwarts. Therefore we need to plan for the worst." Everyone nodded solemnly.

"So Harry, you head to Dumbledore's office, I'll take your cloak and bring Draco here." Hermione slipped into control mode. "Ginny double and triple check absolutely every possible place the diary could be. Ron you help her look in places outside of Gryffindor tower like the library etcetera and for Merlin's sake try to be inconspicuous." She sounded like a drill sergeant but they loved her for it and she smiled reassuringly at Harry as they went about their respective tasks.

"Ah Harry, to what do I owe the pleasure?" Dumbledore smiled with his usual twinkle despite the inevitable bad news.

"Voldemort may know of the bond between Draco and myself. I thought you ought to know."

"Sit down Harry and begin from the beginning."

Harry sighed and sat down.

"Ginny lost her diary last week and it contains information about our bond. Since the Hogwarts rumour mill hasn't yet fired up we have come to the conclusion it may have been taken outside the castle. Most likely straight to him."

"This is not good news. It seems miss Weasley may have had a momentary lapse in judgement when she decided to write down certain events. All we can do now is wait and see what exactly he knows, if he does indeed know."

"He knows. I can feel it."

"Feel it?"

"Sense it."

"But your scar isn't hurting?"

"No. Not hurting but the link is still there."

"I see. I have in my possession a spell which I think could help you defeat Him when the time comes... I have been putting off giving it to you as you are still so young to be fighting this battle by yourself but it would be better to be prepared."

"I already know the spell you speak of."

Concealing his surprise well Dumbledore asked. "Where did you find it?"

"The library at Grimmauld" Harry answered. He did not tell Dumbledore that he had been in possession of the spell since before Sirius had died and that he had studied it in extreme depth already.

"It is an extremely complicated spell. I would expect it has been completed successfully less than half a dozen times in history. As part of an attack on the Dark Lord it could be very useful. I don't pretend to be an expert on it but perhaps we could go through it sometime soon?"

"I don't think there's any need for that. I hope it will be some time yet before I face Him. The next time I face him I want it to be on my terms. I want the advantage. I want to force Him to face me and not the other way round. The next time I face Voldemort will be the last."

"And Mr Malfoy..."

"Is the reason I won't lose." Harry cut him off. "I know what will happen if our bond is broken and I can't leave him... I won't break his soul." Harry's face showed an utter determination which Dumbledore couldn't help but admire. He had grown up far quicker than a child should ever have to and he had coped with his burden better than anyone could have hoped. Dumbledore just hoped it all turned out for the best. If it were up to him he would postpone it forever but he knew they had to try. The battle would see either the downfall or the saviour of the wizarding world and the sooner there was a definite end, the better, he supposed.

There were a few moments of contemplative silence before it was interrupted by the door to Dumbledore's office crashing open and Snape striding in.

"He knows! He knows everything!" He shouted, his eyes falling on Harry.

"Calm down Severus."

"I knew it." Harry murmured to himself. His chest ached as he thought about how Draco would take the news. He could sense Draco's worry and tried to calm himself in an effort to reassure Draco.

"What have you done?" Snape directed at Harry, glaring from beneath his greasy hair.

"It was an accident." Harry stated more calmly than he felt.

"Accident! Some bloody accident! You may as well be dead!"

"Severus! You're not helping anybody." Dumbledore stood and motioned to a seat for the potions professor. Snape however did not sit.

"You stupid, hormonal bloody kids!"

It was Harry's turn to stand and face his professor. "You know it's more than that and you know I would protect Draco to the ends of the earth. Voldemort finding out is just a snag in the tapestry and I will fight him regardless! This doesn't change anything!"

"Protect him? Doesn't change anything? You're deluded." Snape sighed and shook his head slightly. "The Dark Lord commands that I take Draco to him as a trap for Potter." He directed the statement at Dumbledore and did not look at Harry.

"You will not touch him." Harry growled and both professor's turned at the tone of voice they had never before heard him use. "You ever touch him and I swear I will kill you so slowly that you will pray for death long before it comes." His eyes practically glowed with menace.

"Calm down Harry and let us think about this reasonably."

"There is no reasoning, I will not let you take him."

"This could be turned to our advantage. If we prepared to fight and sent Mr Malfoy in prepared, we could be in control."

"I am ready to fight. Believe me I'm ready. But I will never willingly put Draco in harms way."

"What do you mean you're ready to fight."

"I mean I am ready to fight him. Like I said the next time I face Him will be the last and I will not lose. But I need it to be on my terms. I'm ready and you're not taking Draco."

Harry stared icily at them.

"I still don't understand what you mean by 'ready to fight'. Have you been training?"

"You don't need to know the details of my plan especially not with him in the room." He eyed Snape. "But you have no need to worry. Trust me."

Dumbledore looked at him over the top of his spectacles and tried to analyse the changed teen that stood before him. He believed every word. The next time Harry faced Voldemort he would win because he couldn't afford to lose. He had prepared himself for the final battle and Dumbledore couldn't help but be proud of him and yet also scared for him.

"This is tripe! You are but a boy and you have thrown away any chance you had!" Snape shook his head.

Harry ignored him and headed for the door. His compelling urge to seek his mate was taking over as his tattoo expressed his stress. "Remember what I said. You touch him and you'll regret it." He closed Dumbledore's office doors behind him and darted along the halls.

"He know doesn't He?" Draco's eyes shone with fear and Harry crumpled into his arms, nodding a silent yes. Closing the hangings around Harry's bed, they curled up together and Harry allowed silent tears to fall slowly down his face. He wept as he thought of a life without Draco, as he thought about what could happen if the battle didn't go well, as he thought about what life could be like for Draco if Harry didn't survive. He couldn't afford to lose, he wouldn't lose. But it still scared him.

Draco cradled Harry close to him feeling his anguish and wishing he could share the burden. All he could do was hold him close, stroke his hair and comfort him as he wept silently.

Ginny stayed out of their way for the next few days, deeply ashamed of what had happened. How could she be so stupid? She repeatedly scolded herself. She had put Harry in danger. Again.

Ron and Hermione tried not to mention it too much as Harry seemed to throw himself into schoolwork. Sitting silently for hours seemingly studying various books and parchments with a look of deep concentration. Often he would disappear to the library for hours. Or so they thought. Hermione was on the one hand pleased to see him studying but on the other hand worried that it was not his usual behaviour.

When Draco had left the dorms in the early hours after his meeting with Dumbledore, Harry had pulled an old, black, leather-bound book from his trunk. He was rusty, he had barely looked at the book all summer. Time to begin practising again and perhaps to adapt his method of thinking. He opened the front cover of the book and removed a few sheets of parchment covered in his own scrawled writing which he had tucked there for safe keeping. When he had said he was ready it wasn't exactly a lie. He had been ready for a while but had been waiting for the right time to put his plan into action. He just needed to brush up on what he knew he had to do and there was perhaps some adapting to be done.

Over the next few days Harry spent all of his free time checking on Draco, studying the parchments he had and practising what he could in the room of requirement. He felt better knowing he hadn't forgotten any of it. He had also managed, after a lot of research, thought and testing, to adapt a spell he had found that would allow him to protect Draco in some manner. Soon, when the plan was perfect, he would share it with Draco and together they would defeat Voldemort.

A few weeks passed relatively peacefully and Harry began to forget about his worries. Voldemort had made no more attempts at either his or Draco's life now that he knew. Harry and Draco suspected he knew very little about their bond as there was not much information available about it and even they themselves did not know everything about it.

A couple of weeks before the Christmas holidays Harry found himself with a headache for the first time in a long while and so he decided to skip dinner in favour of a nap and so he parted ways from Ron and Hermione and headed to his dorms. He fell asleep easily enough but not long later he was awoken by a sharp, agonising pain.

He sat bolt upright but for once he did not clutch a searing forehead, instead he clutched his chest. Instant paralyzing fear gripped him. His heart felt like it was about to explode and when the pain did not subside he fumbled around and shoved his glasses on.

He knew what he was going to have to do. He knew he had to be ready to kill.

Pulling himself together as much as he could he rushed out of the dorms and through the common room, heading straight for the Great Hall. Before he even reached them, the doors to the Great Hall flew open and Harry strode through them and down the length of the hall towards the staff table where, as he had suspected there would be, there was an ominous empty seat. He made a beeline for the Headmaster and most of the eyes in the Hall were on him. As soon as he reached the table he raged at the Headmaster.

"He's gone! He took my Draco and you let him!"

"Calm down Harry, I..."

"I will not calm down! Do you have the faintest idea what you've done!"

"Harry, what do you mean?"

"You know exactly what I mean. He has taken him and I won't let him away with it. Now you have sent us unprepared straight into a trap! Once again the battle will be on his terms!"

Murmurs had flooded the great hall, those far away from the staff table whispered of what might be going on. Those closer whispered of the use of his phrase 'my Draco' and about the manner in which he spoke to Dumbledore. Most of all though, they heard the word battle and hoped it didn't mean what they thought it meant.

"Harry let us go and discuss this and come up with a plan of action?" Dumbledore looked at him over the top of his glasses. Harry gripped his chest and winced as pain shot through him once again, reminding him of the immense pain he was already in. "You separated us and so you put us in harms way without us even being in the presence of Voldemort! You are a wise man but you know nothing of our bond. I asked you to trust me!" Harry hissed at the old man. It was only then that he realised Ron and Hermione were at his side.

"Get The Order ready." He said authoritatively and made to leave the Great Hall.

"Harry remember you are a student and I am your Headmaster. I will see you in my office." Harry shot him a glare but left and did as he was told. The old man didn't like to have his authority undermined but this was one time he would just have to take orders from Harry. Harry couldn't afford for this to go any more wrong than it already had.